Pope and Devil: The Vatican's Archives and the Third Reich

Pope and Devil: The Vatican's Archives and the Third Reich

Pope and Devil: The Vatican's Archives and the Third Reich

Pope and Devil: The Vatican's Archives and the Third Reich

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Overview

The Vatican's dealings with the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich have long been swathed in myth and speculation. After almost seventy years, the crucial records for the years leading up to 1939 were finally opened to the public, revealing the bitter conflicts that raged behind the walls of the Holy See. Anti-Semites and philo-Semites, adroit diplomats and dogmatic fundamentalists, influential bishops and powerful cardinals argued passionately over the best way to contend with the intellectual and political currents of the modern age: liberalism, communism, fascism, and National Socialism. Hubert Wolf explains why a philo-Semitic association was dissolved even as anti-Semitism was condemned, how the Vatican concluded a concordat with the Third Reich in 1933, why Hitler's Mein Kampf was never proscribed by the Church, and what factors surrounded the Pope's silence on the persecution of the Jews.

In rich detail, Wolf presents astonishing findings from the recently opened Vatican archives--discoveries that clarify the relations between National Socialism and the Vatican. He illuminates the thinking of the popes, cardinals, and bishops who saw themselves in a historic struggle against evil. Never have the inner workings of the Vatican--its most important decisions and actions--been portrayed so fully and vividly.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780674064263
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Publication date: 05/07/2012
Pages: 336
Product dimensions: 5.80(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Hubert Wolf is Professor of Church History at the University of Munster.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

1 Neutralizing Evil? 19

Vatican Prescriptions for Germany (1917-1929)

2 Perfidious Jews? 81

The Battle in the Vatican over Anti-Semitism (1928)

3 The Pact with the Devil? 126

The Reichskonkordat (1930-1933)

4 Molto Delicato? 179

The Roman Curia and the Persecution of the Jews (1933-1939)

5 Dogma or Diplomacy? 223

The Catholic Worldview and Nazi Ideology (1933-1939)

Chronology 275

Notes 285

Acknowledgments 309

Index 313

What People are Saying About This

John W. O'Malley

Pope and Devil is a must-read for anybody interested in the Vatican's relationship with Germany in the tumultuous years leading up to World War II, including the hotly debated issue of 'the silence of Pius XII.' This book brings new complexity and insight to the debate on Pius XII's 'silence.'
John W. O'Malley, S.J., author of What Happened at Vatican II

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